The Motor, Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) of the Tema Police Command has advised drivers to stick to the legalized road speed limit when driving and not according to the engine capacity of vehicles.

A representative of the Tema Regional MTTD Command, Sergeant Richard Timinka, said speeding was identified as one of the major causes of accidents on the roads and, therefore, stressed that “stick to the speed limit within the environment you drive in”.

Sgt. Timinka said this at a road safety platform initiated by the Ghana News Agency-Tema Office and the MTTD to promote road safety while reducing accidents and driver indiscipline in the region.

The GNA-Tema and MTTD Road Safety Project seek to create consistent and systematic weekly awareness advocacy on safety on roads, educate all road users of their respective responsibilities, and sensitize drivers on road safety regulations, rules and laws.

He said the Road Acts, Highway Code and Road Traffic Regulations which governed transport and traffic issues in Ghana, stipulated that vehicle drivers were not to drive above 80 kilometres per hour (KPH) on a highway while trucks were permitted to go up to 60 KPH.

He added that 100KPH was the acceptable maximum speed a car could go on a motorway while trucks could do not above 80 KPH.

Speaking on behalf of the Tema Regional MTTD Commander, Sgt. Timinka noted that 50KPH was the acceptable maximum speed in towns with less human activities while drivers were to slow down to 30 KPH in buildup areas.

Sgt. Timinka said about 90 to 95 per cent of all road accidents were avoidable, reiterating that excessive speed was killing people and therefore appealed to drivers to consider other road users when driving.

“When a driver neglects the responsibility to protect pedestrians and other road users, then we as a people are in trouble”.

Giving the accident statistics for Tema Region, he disclosed that in June 2021 alone, the Department had recorded 26 road accident-related deaths.

He revealed that 39 persons in the Tema police region died while 384 got injured as a result of 344 road accidents in the first quarter of 2021.

He noted that the 344 accidents involved 194 commercial vehicles and 248 private cars, and 99 motorcycles, tricycles, and bicycles.

Breaking the statistics further, he said 34 fatal, 154 serious and 156 minor accidents cases were seen in the first quarter.

Tema Regional Manager of the Ghana News Agency, Francis Ameyibor, urged the media as stakeholders of road safety not to renege on their responsibilities to educate road users on making the roads safe for all users.